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‘The Division 2’ Fails to Meet Ubisoft’s Lofty Sales Expectations

You may remember our article discussing the market research company NPD’s findings that ‘The Division 2’ was the best selling game in the US during March 2019. Notably, the report on ‘The Division 2’ does not include PC digital sales but still manages to top the rankings. In another article we discuss how the game has exceeded quality expectations and is definitely worth playing. Well, today the Ubisoft Chief Financial Officer, Frederick Dugeut, chose to share some very surprising news despite all this; the online shooter missed its sales target.

During a recent investor call, Dugeaut revealed the game fell short of the company’s expectation on consoles due to “fierce competition”. Regardless of this, Dugeult believes the first major update involving a multiplayer raid feature will still do well. The update launches today so only time will tell if this prediction proves true.

Importantly Ubisoft has never actually stated what their sales expectation actually was. Did they expect the sequel to vastly eclipse its predecessor? They never claim that it has proven non-profitable or to have lost faith in it. Their goals may simply have been unrealistically high. Hopefully, this inability to ascertain as much money as expected doesn’t impact any timelines for other projects.

It is curious that Dugeult blames the failure of console sales on “fierce competition”. Sure there are currently many games crowding the markets, but when has that really not been the case during the last decade? There are also few competitors who released content with any true substance in March. None would expect one of those to drastically impact an established franchise like the Tom Clancy games. Perhaps Dugeault was referencing the extreme popularity with battle royale games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends.

Perhaps not. During the same investor call, Dugeault cited a misleading fact as a silver lining for ‘The Division 2’ failing to meet sales aspirations. His boasts of significance regarding the tenfold increase in Uplay sales ignores the implications of the deal Uplay made with Epic Games store. Many people chose to download the game via Uplay instead of using Epic Games store as an intermediary.

Regardless of Ubisoft’s claim, ‘The Division 2’ continues to garner mostly positive reviews. With the release of the new raid update today, it will be exciting to see if more players are attracted to the game.

What do you think of ‘The Division 2’ not meeting sales expectations? Did Ubisoft expect too much? Let us know!